Originally Posted by
parabellum
When people can't sleep they may lie there getting more and more agitated by the fact they are not sleeping. It might help to know that lying down in a cool, darkened, quiet room, resting can be 75% as good as sleep, so it doesn't do to get hung up on not sleeping if you are in bed, mentally relax and you may find you drop off anyway!.
Good point. I only got into the long haul stuff relatively recently which gave me a chance to really find out how well my sleep patterns work. I suspect that it works differently for different people.
Concerning the lying there and not falling asleep, I had come to a conclusion that it was worth 50% sleep but maybe it is 75% sleep or varies by person.
For myself, I tend to switch to local time as much as possible wherever I go because I like to do things during my layover. Others tend to stay in home time. On the other hand, there can be flights that are just overnights with no layover followed by day flying30 hours later.
Usually, I try to have a plan on what sleep to do. If I am at base with a normal sleep pattern and have a 930 pm show, I will try to wake up very early, that morning so that I will intentionally be tired at some point in late afternoon and go to sleep around 530. Then I hopefully get near 4 hours sleep. The I count on a rest during the flight which will usually be at least 2.5 hours. Sometime, I come back to base with a 5 AM arrival and will have to switch back to local day flying. Try to get 2-3 hours max sleep using the alarm. Then be up the rest of the day so once again, I will ideally be tired that night.
Frequently, I will be getting my sleep while on the road in two portions for the day.
As a backup, I always have a 5 hour energy drink with me ready for consumption if required. Of course it doesn't always work. I am not a coffee drinker so it may have more effect on me.
A 30 minute controlled rest on the flight deck power nap can do wonders as well.
To be honest, I think the short haul stuff where you can't get a power nap could be much tougher.